Subclass 491 Archives - Easy Migrate

NSW offers attractive substitute for Australia student visa

Ana Carolina — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 05:12:00 +0000

It is now harder to obtain a student visa for Australia and with the number of people starting their migration journey on the popular visa decreasing the state of New South Wales (NSW) has offered an enticing alternative.

NSW has changed the rules for the Skilled Work Regional visa (subclass 491), making it easier for skilled migrants to get full working rights in regional NSW, the ability to leave and re-enter Australia as many times as they want and apply for permanent residence after 3 years.

Those wishing to apply for Pathway 1 of the Skilled Work visa previously had to have been working in a designated regional area of NSW for a period of 12 months or more with a single NSW-based employer.

The time required to apply for the visa has been slashed to just 6 months after the state received feedback from its regional industries which are still struggling to fill jobs.

Australia has seen an unprecedented volume of student arrivals over the last few years and there are now more than 700,000 student visa holders in the country, the highest number on record.

The government has committed to reducing migration numbers and towards the start of the year, application numbers for student visas fell. Approval rates also declined from above 90% to 82.5%.

If you have been refused a student, employer-sponsored, partner or family visa, don’t despair!

There are still options still available to you and the best way to explore those options is to contact Easy Migrate and ask for assistance making an appeal for the decision to be overturned.

Easy Migrate can help you lodge an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), a federal administrative review body with the power to vary or set aside decisions made by a range of administrative bodies, including the Department of Home Affairs.

Contact Easy Migrate to receive the best advice and make your migration journey as stress-free as possible.

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I Want to Work in Australia, What are my Visa Options?

Ana Carolina — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 12:46:55 +0000

Migrating to Australia has many benefits but applying for the right visa will help you make the most of your time by allowing you to work and stay in the country for longer.

72% of the allocated visa places in Australia for 2023-24 are for permanent migrants who wish to work full-time and apply their skills, with many visas aimed at alleviating labour shortages in industries struggling to fill gaps in their workforce.

The other 28% of permanent visas allow migrants to bring their families to the country..

The subclass 491 skilled work (provisional) visa is a very popular option for migrants who wish to start a new life in Australia because it allows visa holders to apply for permanent residency after 3 years in the country.

Costing A$4,640 to apply for, holders of this visa live and work in designated regional areas of the country for up to 5 years. Unlike other popular visa options, holders can work as many hours as they wish and may leave and return to Australia as much as they want whilst in possession of the visa.

Immediate family members of the subclass 491 visa holder can also apply to stay in the country for 5 years, with the same ability to apply for permanent residency after 3 years.

Another option for migrants wishing to live and work in Australia is the subclass 482 temporary skills shortage visa. The short-term stream for this visa costs A$1,455 and lasts for 2 years, while the medium-term stream visas costs $3,035 and lasts 4 years.

Processing is quick compared to the subclass 491 visa and the Department of Home Affairs advises that 90% of short-term applications are processed within two months, medium-term subclass 491 visas are usually processed within a few weeks.

Applicants for the subclass 491 visa must be skilled in an occupation on the short term skilled occupation list for the short term stream. Applicants for the medium-term stream need to practice an occupation on the medium and long term strategic skills list or the regional occupation list.

There are many occupations on this list and a migration agent will be able to tell you whether you have the option of applying for a subclass 482 visa and give you options to find the best visa for your situation. As with subclass 491 visa, the families of visa holders can also apply for a visa to live and work in Australia.

Another popular skilled visa that allows migrants to work full-time and live in Australia is the subclass 186 employer nomination scheme visa. This visa costs $4,640 and allows successful applicants to stay in Australia permanently. As the name suggests, migrants will need to find an employer in Australia that wishes to sponsor them, must possess 3 years of relevant work experience. They must also complete a skills assessment.

This visa is very popular for applicants from within Australia who would like to continue to live and work in the country permanently. If you are overseas, you can apply for this visa, but your occupation must be on the relevant list of skilled occupations and you must have a competent level of English.

The Designated Area Migration Agreement (DAMA) visa is another permanent option where employers in designated regions sponsor migrants to work and live in those areas.

The post I Want to Work in Australia, What are my Visa Options? appeared first on Easy Migrate.

Subclass 191 Visa Begins, Offering Permanent Residency Pathway to Thousands of Migrants

Ana Carolina — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 11:27:58 +0000

The Regional Provisional stream of the Subclass 191 visa for migrants to Australia officially began on the 16th of November and is the only pathway to permanent residency available to migrants on the 5-year Skilled Work Regional or Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visas.

Subclass 191 visas in the Regional Provisional Stream allow migrants to Australia to live and work anywhere in the country permanently. Applicants must be able to demonstrate that they have been living in a designated regional area, and not have left Australia for longer than a 12-month period.

Other eligibility requirements include taking part in a relevant skills assessment, being aged 44 years and under, being nominated by a State or Territory and being able to score 65 points or more on the Department of Home Affairs points test.

The visa offers those wishing to progress to permanent residency status a very good option if they want to stay in Australia, with a thriving economy, low unemployment rate and gorgeous landscape, it definitely makes a compelling case to those looking for safety, security and a comfortable lifestyle.

The federal and state governments made it clear in their mid-year budget that they want more skilled permanent migration to the country, increasing the cap on visas issued by 35,000 places to 195,000 in 2022/23.

Border restrictions threw a spanner in the works for many wishing to migrate to or stay in Australia, the country is now seeing massive skills shortages and the time has never been better to secure your future in the lucky country.

For those lucky enough to hold a Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) (Subclass 491) or Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) (Subclass 494) visa, the Subclass 191 visa presents a golden opportunity to migrate permanently.

Official applications involving thousands of dollars should never be left to chance and the agents and lawyers at Easy Migrate bring over 40 years of collective experience to the table.

Call them now and take the next step on your Australian journey.

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s48 Bar Onshore Applications for Skilled Visas Accepted From November

Ana Carolina — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 09:51:18 +0000

If you have a s48 bar in Australia you may apply for 3 types of skilled visa without leaving the country from the 13th of November!!

The three new prescribed visas are the 491 Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa, the 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa and the 190 Visa Skilled Nominated visa.

To apply for these visas you must have a substantive visa or be on a bridging visa A, B or C.

This will be a huge relief for many migrants in Australia who have not been able to travel offshore due to the border restrictions in order to be able to apply for a skilled visa.

Contact Easy Migrate to take advantage of this opportunity.

Easy Migrate are the Australia-based visa experts, you can count on their experienced lawyers and agents to help you explore every avenue for a more comfortable, secure future.

They can provide excellent advice every step of the way to make sure your visa process is as quick and easy as possible, leading to a positive outcome for you or those you care about.

The post s48 Bar Onshore Applications for Skilled Visas Accepted From November appeared first on Easy Migrate.

South Australia Skilled Visa Recommencing Soon

Ana Carolina — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 09:14:17 +0000

South Australia is preparing to open its borders to International arrivals! From the 31st of August 2020, South Australia will review expressions of interest on the Department of Home Affairs SkillSelect system, with certain Applicants getting priority.

The visas are the Skilled Work (Provisional) visa subclass 491 and Skilled Nominated visa subclass 190.

If you are critical to supporting South Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including individuals providing critical or specialist medical services, critical skills required to maintain the supply of essential goods and services or delivering services in sectors critical to Australia’s economic recovery you may be given priority.

Or if you apply via the Business Innovation and Investment Program and your application is of a high standard, you will have a better chance of being granted a visa.

What is your plan for your future in Australia? To apply for a visa or request advice contact Easymigrate – Australian Migration & Citizenship Services on (08) 9221 4888 or book an appointment using the following link: https://easymigrate.as.me/schedule.php

#southaustralia #adelaide #australia #seesouthaustralia #ichoosesa #sagreat #studyvisa #visa #immigration #subclass491 #subclass190

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Skill Select 11 February 2020 Results

Emma Gallagher — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 03:03:04 +0000

February 2020 Skill Select Round Results

SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results are for:

Skill Select EOI Invitation Round is for people who lodged an Expression of Interest (EOI)
Submitted EOI’s must be for the General Skilled Migration or “GSM” stream of visa subclasses
The two GSM visa subclasses are 189 (Skilled Independent) (Australian Permanent visa) and subclass 491 (Skilled Family Sponsored) (Australian Provisional visa).

EasyMigrate is a leading Australian migration agency, based in Perth, Australia. Mr Cyrus Mistry (founder of EasyMigrate) has reviewed SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results – see his comments below.

Sign up for the latest EOI skill select updates

Skill Select & Migration News

Hints & Tips

Apply for state-nominations also, in parallel. We have many clients who were waiting for more than a year for an invitation through SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results. For these clients we complete a file-review and recommend a suitable state-nomination option. Many of them get invited for permanent residency WITHIN 2 to 3 MONTHS!

You can contact us for an “initial consultancy”, and we can review your case (link for online booking etc.)

Summary:

Next round is 11 March 2020. Commentary regarding that Skill Select invitation round will be published by EasyMigrate as soon as those statistics are made available to the public by the Department of Immigration (usually one month later).

The SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for September 2019 was terrible – 100 invitations instead of 1,000 invitations in July 2019. The 11 October 2019 was much better – with 1,500 invitations! Then, the SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for 11 November 2019 and 11 December 2019 rounds were very low and disappointing – only 250 invitations! 10 January 2020 invitations were better at 1000 invitations. The latest SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results (11 February 2020) is slightly better than the October 2019 and January 2020 invitations – 1000 invitations for subclass 189 applicants and another 500 invitations for the new SC491 family-sponsored applicants.

The exact number of invitations on 11th February 2020:

1,000 invitations in the Skilled Independent subclass 189 and 500 invitations in the new subclass 491 family-sponsored stream. You may already be aware that Family-Sponsored Subclass 489 has been discontinued from 16 Nov 2019 and replaced by the “SC491 Family Sponsored” stream.

For this round, 189 invitations went to SC489 Family Sponsored applicants who have 85 points (but in my opinion this is the same as the previous pre-November 2019 rule changes score level “invitation at 70 points”). This is because applicants now get 5 or 10 more points for spouse if spouse is skilled and/or speaks good English, if applicants DO NOT have a spouse (10 points), etc. Applicants also get 15 more points if they are “SC491 Family Sponsored”.

For SC189 Independent:

555 invitations went to applicants with 90 points
323 invitations went to applicants with 95 points
73 invitations went to applicants with 100 points
32 invitations went to applicants with 105 points
Approx 20 invitations went to applicants with 110 points or more.

For SC491-Family Sponsored:

189 invitations went to applicants with 85 points
156 invitations went to applicants with 90 points
88 invitations went to applicants with 95 points
49 invitations went to applicants with 100 points
Approx 22 invitations went to applicants with 105 points or more.
There were no invitations to persons with 80 points or less (but historically, even at 70 points, 884 were invited in March 2019, 848 invited in Jan 2019 and 32 invited in February 2019).

Occupations Analysis

The cut-off for Skilled Independent (SC189) was 90 points, cut-off date 16-11-2019.

The previous cut-off for Skilled Family Sponsored (SC489) was 95 points, cut-off date 16-12-2019 in previous invitation rounds. But this time 500 SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were invited, starting at 85 points with cut-off date 08-01-2020.

The “boom” months were between September 2018 and November 2018 at 4,350 invitations per month.

In the October 2018 invitation round, 70-point holders were also invited for SC189, but not anymore. This is due to a combination of increased numbers of applications received by the Department of Immigration and reduced quota for invitations.

For pro-rata Occupations:

For the twenty-third round of invitations relating to pro-rata occupations, DoHA has been inviting Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers! For Accountants, the invitation threshold dropped from 100 points to 95 points (It had come down to 80 points in January 2019). The cut-off date is published as 17-05-2019, which means that all “Accountant” applicants with 95 points who lodged before 17-05-2019 got invited. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants (Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers) were not invited at all.

For the Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers occupations, the cut-off points-score has stayed at 95, and the cut-off date is now 01-12-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

Electronics Engineers did not get invited for SC189 in the September 2019 or October 2019. In December 2019 they had been invited at 95 points or more, cut-off date was 04-06-2019. For this latest round, Electronics Engineers have been invited a 90 points, cut-off date is 16-11-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were invited for Electrical Engineer occupation at 85 points, cut-off date 22-12-2019.

For Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers – last month the new invitations stopped at 90 points, with cut-off date 01-06-2019. The score requirement has remained the same –invitations have been issued at 90 points, with cut-off date 17-09-2019! SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

(Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers were previously invited in November 2018 at 70 points)

In previous month, Other Engineering Professionals got the invitation-score increased from 85 points to 95 points! In Jan 2020 this had dropped to 90 points. February 2020 invitations went to applicants with 90 points. The date of effect is 11-11-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

For ICT Business and Systems Analysts – the SC189 invitation threshold had increased from 85 points to 95 points in December 2019. This has dropped to 90 points in January 2019, with the visa date of effect 01-09-2019. February 2020 invitations went to applicants with 90 points, cut-off date 07-11-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were not invited at all in Jan 2020 round.

Software and Application Programmers – for SC189 the pass mark had increased from 85 to 95 points in December 2019 round, 90 points in January 2020 round; this has stayed the same at 90 points and the cut-off date is now 16-11-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were invited at 85 points, cut-off date 06-01-2020.

Computer Network Professionals – SC189 applicants got invited at 95 points in December 2019 round. In January 2019, this dropped to 90 points with cut-off date 30-09-2019. In February 2020 round, invitations were given to applicants with 90 points, cut-off date 16-11-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were invited at 85 points, cut-off date 03-01-2020.

If the number of invitations goes up in future general skilled migration program invitations, then more occupations with 85 points or less are likely to be invited. We are now starting to see the new Subclass 491 invitations increase as full-months of application-time has kicked in. This is likely to dilute the SC189 applicant’s chances. My recommendation is: PLEASE CONTACT US TO SEE IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE AND THEN LODGE SC491 EOIs ALSO, LODGE SC190 EOIs ALSO IF ELIGIBLE.

With the quota having re-set on 1^st July 2019 (financial year-end), I expect to see a SUBSTANTIAL increase in the number of invitations in the next few invitation rounds. But from December 2019 round onwards the new Subclass 491 visa (Regional Family Sponsored) has also come under the Expression of Interest scheme so there will be fluctuations and variations. The new SC 491 visa replaced the “old” SC489 visa on 16^th November 2019.

Please note that the EOI date resets each time an applicant does an “upgrade” or change — for example, additional points for age, extra points for work-experience, successful NAATI test, extra points for “single-status”, etc.

Overall, the Australia Government has announced that the quota for general skilled migration is to be reduced from 190,000 to 160,000. This will also affect applicants in future.

Historical Analysis

The number of monthly invitations used to hover around the “two thousand-plus” around 2017 good months. They went lower between November 2017 to June 2018 at about 305 “SkillSelect” invitations per fortnight for the EOI applicants!

From July 2018 the invitations were on par with the good months in previous year (2017).

The two rounds of October 2018 and November 2018 EXCEEDED our expectations at 4,340 invitations.

But the December 2018 round and January 2019 halved to 2,500 invitations. February 2019, March 2019 were FURTHER REDUCED to 1,500 invitations, and April 2019 plus May 2019 plus June 2019 invitations were a disappointing 100 invitations only.

July 2019 invitations had bounced back to 1,000 invitations. But August 2019 and September 2019 had fallen back to just 100 invitations! October 2019 invitations looked much better at 1,500 invitations. But November 2019 round was very poor at 250 invitations. The December 2019 was not much better – 250 invitations for SC189 and 200 invitations for SC491-Family-Sponsored. The January 2020 invitations were better with 1,000 SC190 invitations and 300 SC491-Family-Sponsored invitations. The current round under review (11 February 2020) was slightly better at 1000 invitations for SC189 and 500 invitations for SC491 Family Sponsored.

The total number of invitations for the financial year (July 2018 to June 2019) was 22,920.

Based on July 2018, August 2018, September 2018, October 2018, November 2018, December 2018 January 2019 February 2019 March 2019, April 2019 and May 2019 figures, I had forecast in my previous articles that the total number of EOI applicants invited for the financial year July 2018 to June 2019 would be 22,820 – my estimate was very close because the FINAL COUNT SkillSelect Invitation Round Results was 22,920!

Cyrus Mistry Comments

Recent announcements by the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) point to a further slow-down in the number of “general skilled migration” (GSM) invitations.

The effect of “re-invitation” continues to plague the SkillSelect invitations program. In my previous articles, I had mentioned about the impact of “re-invitation”. Many applicants have changed to other countries or changed their plans but have not removed their Expressions of Interest (EOI). So they get invited, but they do not apply within the next 60 days. These applicants usually get “re-invited” as per the Dept of Immigration rules one more time! I estimate this figure to be as high as 30-40% in many occupations. This severely affects the program. For example, out of the 1,000-odd invitations in January 2020 only about 600-800 may take it up, 200-400 “invites” are wasted! This is something that the Department of Home Affairs has not been able to tackle yet.

This time, more invitations were issued to new SC491 Family-Sponsored applicants (500 instead of 300). The points allotted for Family-Sponsorship under the new legislation have increased from 10 to 15 points. Please keep in mind that for the SC491 FAMILY-SPONSORED visa, the applicant needs to have scored 70 points “independently” plus the 15 points from their family-sponsor (if invitations are starting at 85 points). From 16 November 2019 onwards the new Subclass 491 Regional Family-Sponsored visa has come into effect, replacing the SC489.

Our EasyMigrate website has statistics for previous SkillSelect Invitation Round Results. My ongoing analysis for the October 2017 invitations; the November 2017 invitation round and the December 2017 round are available. January 2018 round, February 2018 round, March 2018 round, April 2018 round, May 2018 Round, the two x June 2018 rounds, the 11th July 2018, 11 ^th August 2018 the 11 September 2018, October 2018, November 2018, December 2018 rounds are available. January 2019, February 2019, March 2019, April 2019 May 2019, June 2019, July 2019, August 2019, September 2019, October 2019, November 2019 , December 2019 and January 2020 invitation rounds are also available on our website.

Department of Home Affairs Invitations Round Results

The results in the next section have been taken from the Department of Home Affairs website:

Overview

Invitation rounds for Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) and Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored visas will be run once a month.

Invitation rounds are anticipated to run on the 11th day of each month. Dates for the rounds are subject to change.

Invitation numbers in each round may vary depending on the number of applications being processed by the Department.

Note: State or territory government nominations for Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) will not be impacted.

Current round

Invitations issued on 11 February 2020

The table below shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 11 February 2020.

Visa subclass	Number
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)	1,000
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored	500

During 2019-20 program year the following numbers of invitations have been issued:

11 February 2020 results

The following graph shows the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 11 February 2020 round.

Invitation process and cut offs

The highest ranked clients by points score are invited to apply for the relevant visa. For clients who have equal points scores, the time at which they reached their points score for that subclass (referred to as the date of effect) determines their order of invitation. Expressions of Interest with earlier dates of effect are invited before later dates.

Visa subclass	Minimum points score	Latest date of effect
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)	90	16/11/2019 9:23pm
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored)	85	08/01/2020 3:06pm

Point scores and the dates of effect cut off for the pro rata occupations in the 11 February 2020 invitation round.

Due to high levels of demand, and in keeping with previous years, the below occupation groups will be subject to pro rata arrangements to ensure availability of invitations across the program year.

SkillSelect first allocates available places to Skilled – Independent visas (subclass 189) and then the remaining to Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored . If all places are taken up by subclass 189 visas then there will be no invitations issued for subclass 491 visas in these occupations.

Subclass	Occupation ID	Description	Minimum points score	Latest date of effect
189	2211	Accountants	95	17/05/2019 9:21am
189	2212	Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers	95	01/12/2019 3:57am
189	2334	Electronics Engineer	90	16/11/2019 7:32pm
491	2334	Electronics Engineer	85	22/12/2019 10:06pm
189	2335	Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers	90	17/09/2019 2:06pm
189	2339	Other Engineering Professionals	90	11/11/2019 4:19pm
189	2611	ICT Business and System Analysts	90	07/11/2019 7:50pm
189	2613	Software and Applications Programmers	90	16/11/2019 9:23pm
491	2613	Software and Applications Programmers	85	06/01/2020 11:07pm
189	2631	Computer Network Professionals	90	16/11/2019 3:07pm
491	2631	Computer Network Professionals	85	03/01/2020 10:24pm

Invitations issued during 2019-20 program year

Visa subclass	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Total
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)	1,000	100	100	1,500	250	250	1,000	1,000	5,200
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored						200	300	500	1000
Skilled Regional (provisional) visa (subclass 489)	100	100	100						300
Total	1,100	200	200	1,500	250	450	1,300	1,500	6,500

The above figures do not include invitations issued for State and Territory Government nominated visa subclasses. State and Territory Governments nominate throughout the month for specific points tested skilled migration and business innovation and investment visas.

The post Skill Select 11 February 2020 Results appeared first on Easy Migrate.

491 Visa delayed by NSW

Emma Gallagher — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 05:26:33 +0000

NSW is yet to open applications for the new 491 subclass

Migrants looking to apply for NSW under subclass 491 will have to wait longer

The new 491 Visa has been delayed by New South Wales (NSW). The 491 is a Skilled Work Regional (provisional) visa program launched in November 2019, however the most populated state in Australia NSW has not activated the program.

Migrants looking to apply for NSW under subclass 491 will have to wait a little longer. The Australian government launched new regional visa programs at the end of last year.

Dairy Cattle Farmer, Project Builder, Flying Instructor, Regional Education Manager, Nurses and Carpenters are all among workers eligible to come to Australia through new regional visa pathways.

The Australian government introduced this visa pathway to calm the population pressures on Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The paths will also be of enormous benefit to regional communities by boosting local populations and giving communities access to skilled workers, that they lack.

The NSW government have stated on their website

“There is currently a delay in the program opening in NSW. We will announce when NSW is open to applications shortly. We are unable to provide further guidance via phone or email at this time.”

There is a summary of the status of the new Visa Subclass 491 in all different states and territories on ANZSCO SEARCH. Please follow EasyMigrate Facebook page for all the latest Australian migration news.

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SkillSelect Invitation Round January 2020 Results

Emma Gallagher — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:00:45 +0000

Skill Select Round Results January 2020

Skill Select January 2020 Results

SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results are for:

Skill Select EOI Invitation Round is for people who lodged an Expression of Interest (EOI)
Submitted EOI’s must be for the General Skilled Migration or “GSM” stream of visa subclasses
The two GSM visa subclasses are 189 (Skilled Independent) (Australian Permanent visa) and subclass 491 (Skilled Family Sponsored) (Australian Provisional visa).

Sign up for the latest EOI skill select updates

Skill Select & Migration News

WA introduced a new Regional WA only category – A new condition has been applied to some health care related occupations in the WA state nomination.
Horticulture labour agreement – Applications are now open – Since 1st January 2020, Australian businesses in the horticulture industry can apply for the new Horticulture Industry Labour Agreement.

Previous Updates

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has released new State List for 2019 / 2020 – Have you ever wanted to Migrate to Australia and live in Canberra, but haven’t been able to because your occupation wasn’t on the required statelist? Now is your chance.
New South Wales (NWS) has released new State List for 2019/2020 – Have you ever wanted to Migrate to Australia and live in NSW, but haven’t been able to because your occupation wasn’t on the required statelist? Now is your chance.
Northern Territory (NT) has released new State List for 2019/2020 –Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) Migration Occupation List includes occupations that are in demand in the NT eligible for NT nomination under the General Skilled Migration Program. If your occupation is not on the NT Migration Occupations List but is on the Department of Home Affairs, Combined current list of eligible skilled occupations and identified as being eligible for subclass 491 (S/T) or subclass 190 visa you can still apply for NT Government nomination.

Hints & Tips

You can contact us for an “initial consultancy”, and we can review your case (link for online booking etc.)

Summary:

Next round is 11 February 2020. Commentary regarding that Skill Select invitation round will be published by EasyMigrate as soon as those statistics are made available to the public by the Department of Immigration (usually one month later).

The SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for September 2019 was terrible – 100 invitations instead of 1,000 invitations in July 2019. The 11 October 2019 was much better – with 1,500 invitations! Then, the SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results for 11 November 2019 and 11 December 2019 rounds were very low and disappointing – only 250 invitations! The latest SkillSelect EOI Invitation Round Results (10 January 2020) is slightly similar to the October 2019 invitations – 1000 invitations for subclass 189 applicants and another 300 invitations for the new SC491 family-sponsored applicants.

The exact number of invitations on 10th January 2020:

1,000 invitations in the Skilled Independent subclass 189 and 300 invitations in the new subclass 491 family-sponsored stream. You may already be aware that Family-Sponsored Subclass 489 has been discontinued from 16 Nov 2019 and replaced by the “SC491 Family Sponsored” stream.

For this round, no invitations went to applicants who have 85 points or less (but in my opinion this is the same as the previous pre-November 2019 rule changes score level “invitation at 75 points”). This is because applicants now get 5 or 10 more points for spouse if spouse is skilled or speaks good English, applicants also get more points if they are “SC491 Family Sponsored”, etc).

For SC189, 646 invitations went to applicants who had 90 points. For SC491-Family-sponsored invitations, 168 invitations went to applicants with 90 points.
285 invitations went to SC189 applicants at 95 points, 82 invitations went to SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants at 95 points.
Approx 45 invitations went to applicants with 100 points for both SC189 and SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants.
17 SC189 invitations and 8 SC491-Family-sponsored invitations went to applicants with 105 points.
Approximately 11 invitations went to applicants with 110 or more points.

There were no invitations to persons with 85 points or less (but historically, even at 70 points, 884 were invited in March 2019, 848 invited in Jan 2019 and 32 invited in February 2019).

Occupations Analysis

The cut-off for Skilled Independent (SC189) was 90 points, cut-off date 02-10-2019.

The previous cut-off for Skilled Family Sponsored (SC489) was 95 points, cut-off date 04-12-2019 in previous invitation rounds. But this time 300 SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were invited, with cut-off date 16-12-2019.

The “boom” months were between September 2018 and November 2018 at 4,350 invitations per month.

For the twenty-second round of invitations, DoHA has been inviting Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers! For Accountants, the invitation threshold had GONE UP TO 100 points but has dropped to 95 points as compared to the previous round of 11 December 2019 (It had come down to 80 points in January 2019). The cut-off date is published as 23-04-2019, which means that all “Accountant” applicants with 95 points who lodged before 23-04-2019 got invited. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants (Accountants, Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers) were not invited at all.

For the Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers occupations listed above, the cut-off points-score has stayed at 95, and the cut-off date is now 18-10-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

Electronics Engineers did not get invited for SC189 in the September 2019 or October 2019. In December 2019 they had been invited at 95 points or more, cut-off date was 04-06-2019. For this latest round, Electronics Engineers have been invited a 90 points, cut-off date is 25-09-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were invited for Electrical Engineer occupation at 95 points, cut-off date 03-01-2020.

For Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers – last month the new invitations stopped at 95 points, with cut-off date 29-09-2019. The score requirement has dropped –invitations have been issued at 90 points, with cut-off date 01-06-2019! SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

(Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers were previously invited in November 2018 at 70 points)

In previous month, Other Engineering Professionals got the invitation-score increased from 85 points to 95 points! In Jan 2020 this has dropped to 90 points. The date of effect is 28-08-2019. SC491 Family Sponsored applicants were not invited at all.

For ICT Business and Systems Analysts – the SC189 invitation threshold had increased from 85 points to 95 points in December 2019. This has dropped to 90 points, with the visa date of effect 01-09-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were not invited at all in Jan 2020 round.

Software and Application Programmers – for SC189 the pass mark had increased from 85 to 95 points in December 2019 round; this has reduced to 90 points and the cut-off date is now 02-10-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were invited at 90 points, cut-off date 11-12-2019.

Computer Network Professionals – SC189 applicants got invited at 95 points in December 2019 round. This has dropped to 90 points with cut-off date 30-09-2019. In this occupation, SC491-Family-Sponsored applicants were invited at 90 points, cut-off date 20-11-2019.

If the number of invitations goes up in future general skilled migration program invitations, then more occupations with 85 points or less are likely to be invited. From this invitation round onwards (January 2020) we will start to see the new Subclass 491 invitations increase as a full-month of application-time has kicked in. This is likely to dilute the SC189 applicant’s chances. My recommendation is: PLEASE CONTACT US TO SEE IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE AND THEN LODGE SC491 EOIs ALSO, LODGE SC190 EOIs ALSO IF ELIGIBLE.

Overall, the Australia Government has announced that the quota for general skilled migration is to be reduced from 190,000 to 160,000. This will also affect applicants in future.

Historical Analysis

The number of monthly invitations used to hover around the “two thousand-plus” around 2017-2018 good months. They went lower between November 2017 to June 2018 at about 305 “SkillSelect” invitations per fortnight for the EOI applicants!

From July 2018 the invitations were on par with the good months in previous years.

The two rounds of October 2018 and November 2018 EXCEEDED our expectations at 4,340 invitations.

July 2019 invitations had bounced back to 1,000 invitations. But August 2019 and September 2019 had fallen back to just 100 invitations! October 2019 invitations looked much better at 1,500 invitations. But November 2019 round was very poor at 250 invitations. The December 2019 was not much better – 250 invitations for SC189 and 200 invitations for SC491-Family-Sponsored. The latest round (January 2020) is much better with 1,000 SC190 invitations and 300 SC491-Family-Sponsored invitation.

The total number of invitations for the financial year (July 2018 to June 2019) was 22,920.

Cyrus Mistry Comments

Recent announcements by the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA) point to a further slow-down in the number of “general skilled migration” (GSM) invitations.

This time, few invitations were issued to new SC491 Family-Sponsored applicants. The points allotted for Family-Sponsorship under the new legislation have increased from 10 to 15 points. Please keep in mind that for the SC491 FAMILY-SPONSORED visa, the applicant needs to have scored 75 points “independently” plus the 15 points from their family-sponsor (if invitations are being issued at 90 points). From 16 November 2019 onwards the new Subclass 491 Regional Family-Sponsored visa has come into effect, replacing the SC489.

On our EasyMigrate website, has statistics for previous SkillSelect Invitation Round Results. My ongoing analysis for the October 2017 invitations; the November 2017 invitation round and the December 2017 round are available. January 2018 round, February 2018 round, March 2018 round, April 2018 round, May 2018 Round, the two x June 2018 rounds, the 11th July 2018, 11 ^th August 2018 the 11 September 2018, October 2018, November 2018, December 2018 rounds are available. January 2019, February 2019, March 2019, April 2019 May 2019, June 2019, July 2019, August 2019, September 2019, October 2019, November 2019 and December 2019 invitation rounds are also available on our website.

Department of Home Affairs Invitations Round Results

The results in the next section have been taken from the Department of Home Affairs website:

Current round

Invitations issued on 10 January 2020

The table below shows the number of invitations issued in the SkillSelect invitation round on 10 January 2020.

Visa subclass	Number
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)	1,000
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored	300

During 2019-20 program year the following numbers of invitations have been issued:

10 January 2020 results

The following graph shows the points for clients who were invited to apply in the 10 January 2020 round.

Invitation process and cut offs

Visa subclass	Minimum points score	Latest date of effect
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)	90	2/10/2019 11:05pm
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored)	90	16/12/2019 1:01am

Point scores and the dates of effect cut off for the pro rata occupations in the 10 January 2020 invitation round.

Due to high levels of demand, and in keeping with previous years, the below occupation groups will be subject to pro rata arrangements to ensure availability of invitations across the program year.

Subclass	Occupation ID	Description	Minimum points score	Latest date of effect
189	2211	Accountants	95	23/04/2019 1:56pm
189	2212	Auditors, Company Secretaries and Corporate Treasurers	95	18/10/2019 10:51am
189	2334	Electronics Engineer	90	25/09/2019 6:35am
491	2334	Electronics Engineer	95	3/01/2020 3:10pm
189	2335	Industrial, Mechanical and Production Engineers	90	1/06/2019 4:20pm
189	2339	Other Engineering Professionals	90	28/08/2019 12:31pm
189	2611	ICT Business and System Analysts	90	1/09/2019 9:12am
189	2613	Software and Applications Programmers	90	2/10/2019 8:32am
491	2613	Software and Applications Programmers	90	11/12/2019 7:33pm
189	2631	Computer Network Professionals	90	30/09/2019 4:46pm
491	2631	Computer Network Professionals	90	20/11/2019 2:40pm

Invitations issued during 2019-20 program year

Visa subclass	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Total
Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189)	1,000	100	100	1,500	250	250	1,000	4,200
Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491) – Family Sponsored						200	300	500
Skilled Regional (provisional) visa (subclass 489)	100	100	100					300
Total	1,100	200	200	1,500	250	450	1,300	5,000

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WA introduced a new Regional WA only category

Emma Gallagher — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 05:39:11 +0000

Perth, Western Australia from Kings Park

Migration Update WA Occupation List

A new condition has been applied to some health care related occupations in the WA state nomination. In the last week, WA has introduced a new category that applies to some health-care sector occupations. WA state nomination has announced that following occupations are subject to the “Regional WA only category”.

252711 Audiologist
253111 General Practitioner
254111 Midwife
254413 Registered Nurse (Child and Family Health)
254414 Registered Nurse (Community Health)
254415 Registered Nurse (Critical care and Emergency)
254422 Registered Nurse (Mental Health)
254423 Registered Nurse (Perioperative)
251511 Hospital Pharmacist

All the occupations that fall under the “Regional WA only” category must have an offer letter or the contract of employment from a regional area to be able to apply for Graduate stream or General stream. This condition is applicable to both the visas: 190 visa as well as 491 visa.

Following postcodes are considered as the regional areas for this category: 6041 to 6044, 6084, 6207, 6213, 6215 to 6537, and 6560 to 6770.

Source: https://migration.wa.gov.au/services/skilled-migration-western-australia/occupation%20lists

Book a Consultation…

If you would like more information about migration to Australia, or to find out if you qualify for an Australian visa, please book an appointment online or by telephone.

Book a face-to-face (or telephone) appointment with one of our qualified and experienced Migration Consultants who will be able to discuss your individual circumstances and outline any visa options/pathways available to you. Appointments can be made at a time convenient to you by using our online booking system.

Initial Consultations are charged at AUD$198 (discounted to AUD$99 for Australian student visa holders) and includes two (2) free follow-up consultations. Any subsequent (follow-up) appointments required are charged at AUD$50 (or AUD$30 for Australian student visa holders). Appointments can be paid for through our online booking system at the time of booking.

If you are eligible for an Australian visa and choose to engage EasyMigrate to assist with the preparation and lodgement of your visa application, the value of your initial consultation will be credited towards your visa application preparation fees.

Book an Appointment

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NSW State Nominated Subclass 491 announcement

Emma Gallagher — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 14:14:49 +0000

Following announcement has come from MIA

Subclass 491

NSW Business and Skilled Migration has released information on its processes for NSW State Nominated Subclass 491 visas.

Applications will open in mid January 2020.

Notably, the NSW Government will handle the entire process, RDAs in NSW will not be participating in the Skilled Work Regional visa (subclass 491).

RDA committees will continue to support regional employers in NSW and their skill needs through responsibilities as a Regional Certifying Body (RCB) in the new Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494)

NSW nomination requirements and application procedures can be found on the NSW Live and Work in NSW site.

Eligible occupations and postcodes designated as regional can be found on the Department of Home Affairs website.

NSW State Nominated Subclass 190 Update

Subclass 190

Requirements for state nomination for the Subclass 190 program are also available on the NSW Live & Work in NSW site.

Commencing January 2020, NSW will generally not invite candidates to apply for nomination by NSW for a Skilled Nominated Visa (190) if they are currently residing in another Australian state or territory.

NSW undertakes ‘invitation rounds’ where selected applicants are invited to apply for NSW nomination. There are no set dates on when an invitation round will occur.

If you would like more information on getting started on your journey to Australia started, please fill in our initial Online Assessment form to see if you qualify. You can book a face-2-face appointment, telephone or Skype with one of our Register Migrations Agents through our online booking calendar.

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